Trump starts his first wall — a barrier to Chinese goods

Just tariff-ic

Stocks took a sharp nosedive as President Donald Trump advanced his plan for restrictive tariffs on about $60 billion worth of imports from China. He ordered the U.S. trade representative to develop a list of specifics within 15 days, with a comment period to follow.

“It’s out of control,” the president said of the U.S. trade deficit with the People’s Republic, adding, “We’re doing things for this country that should have been done for many, many years.”

Newsday’s Laura Figueroa Hernandez details the announcement here. 

China on Friday announced plans to reciprocate against 128 U.S. products including pork, wine, fruit and steel if an agreement cannot be reached to settle trade grievances.

Flurry of worry

Farmers, electronics dealers and other industry groups fretted over “a chain reaction of negative consequences.” Chinese retaliation could hit a range of American businesses, from soybean farmers to Ford, Apple and Boeing. Columbia University professor Sharyn O’Halloran is among the critics interviewed by Newsday (video here).

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said he expects retaliation from China, but not a trade war. These are the kinds of steps Trump promised in his “America First” campaign. He cited theft of American intellectual property.

On Wall Street, the Dow dropped 724 points, with a 5.2% slide for Boeing.

Now he’s General McOuster

One week ago, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said “contrary to reports,” the president and National Security Adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster “have a good working relationship” and there are “no changes” with regard to him.

That fabrication is no longer operative. Tensions were reported for a long time — and as expected, Trump moved Thursday to replace McMaster with former UN Ambassador John Bolton, who was influential in the Bush administration policies that Trump has assailed.

Berate and switch

On Sunday, Trump denied he was unhappy with his legal team, and blasted reports to the contrary and suggestions that he’d add another lawyer to help out.

“Wrong,” Trump tweeted. “I am VERY happy with my lawyers, John Dowd, Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow.”

But quicker than you could say “fake denial,” Trump retained the longtime lawyer and Fox News talker Joseph DiGenova.

And on Thursday, Dowd resigned. “I love the president, and wish him well,” the attorney said.

Dowd and Cobb had been urging Trump to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller and to refrain from feeding any appearance he would undermine the Russia probe. That didn’t take, with Trump again assailing the inquiry.

Them’s Biden words!

The political dis of the week came from a speech by former vice president and possible 2020 Democratic contender Joe Biden. It was delivered at a University of Miami rally against sexual assault, cited here by ABC News.

“A guy who ended up becoming our national leader said, ‘I can grab a woman anywhere and she likes it,’ ” Biden said. “They asked me if I’d like to debate this gentleman, and I said ‘no.’ I said, ‘If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.’ ”

“I’ve been in a lot of locker rooms my whole life,” Biden continued. “I’m a pretty damn good athlete. Any guy that talked that way was usually the fattest, ugliest S.O.B. in the room.”

Donald’s ‘tough-guy’ reply

Biden also called Trump “a joke.” True to form, Trump took the bait and tweeted as if threatened, Newsday’s Figueroa reports.

“Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault.

“He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don’t threaten people Joe!”

The much-protected Trump, however, didn’t seize the occasion to address sexual harassment allegations against him. In a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper, former Playboy model Karen McDougal said Trump tried to pay her after sex and said she was beautiful like his daughter Ivanka.

Big spenders' club

Tens of billions of dollars in new spending bought enough support in the House to enact a measure aimed at averting a government shutdown through Sept. 30, according to Politico. The full spending package sent to the Senate totaled $1.3 trillion. 

The final House vote was 256-167. A majority of both parties ended up supporting the 2,200-page bill, printed and posted after 8 p.m. on Wednesday. The Senate approved the bill early Friday after some back-and-forth. 

But shortly before 9 a.m. Trump threatened to veto the omnibus spending bill so his proposed border wall would be "fully funded." In the same tweet he also blamed Democrats for not reviving the DACA program, which he canceled. 

What else is happening

• Hacker Guccifer 2.0, who took credit for providing stolen Democratic National Committee emails to WikiLeaks, is identified by the Daily Beast as an officer of Russia's military intelligence directorate -- and a contact of a Trump adviser.  
• In a parting shot at Trump, who dismissed him on Twitter, ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told staff “this can be a mean-spirited town,” but they don’t need to take part in that.
• Former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon said he does not remember buying personal information from Facebook while working at the data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica.
• Correspondence between political adviser George Nader and rulers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates shows an effort to court Trump and oust Tillerson, the Times reports.
• HUD Secretary Ben Carson took responsibility before a Senate committee in the tempest over expensive furniture.
• Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant defied White House requests and said he will appoint Cindy Hyde-Smith to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat.
• Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf rejected attacks on her from Trump allies over her defiance of ICE as “a continued perpetration of a racist lie.”

By Dan Janison

dan.janison@newsday.comDanJanison

Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.